Page:Folk-lore - A Quarterly Review. Volume 9, 1898.djvu/106

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82
Correspondence.

Women of Turkey, bear out his theory, or indeed touch upon it. If Mr. Stuart-Glennie will reflect, he will see that there is probably good cause for the objections to his theories, or they would not be felt by every one.

The "primitive folk-conception of Nature," so far from being passed over, is stated and italicised in the review, on p. 272 ; but it was certainly not first discovered by Mr. Stuart-Glennie. We think there is a great deal in his suggestions as to the interaction of higher and lower races (see 277-8); but we again protest against assuming universally conditions which are not universally shown to exist. If the evidence exists in MS. volumes, let it be produced ; what is given in the book before us is, we repeat, wholly insufficient to prove the theories for the whole world.

Mr. Stuart-Glennie, in another place (Literary Guide, February 1, 1898), denies that he has postulated the existence of primary civilisations. A few references will settle the matter. Mr. Stuart-Glennie holds that civilisation arose from the conflict of Higher and Lower races (vol. i. p. xxvii.). The Secondary Civilisations came from a conflict of Primary Civilisations with Lower races ; but how these Primary Civilisations arose we are not shown. Mr. Stuart-Glennie denies that civilisation has a "supernatural origin" (i. 4), also that it is a "spontaneous development from savagery" (xxvii.); and of the "Higher Element in the conflict in which the Ancient American civilisations originated there is hardly, perhaps, evidence as yet to justify any decided opinion" (i. 9). Of the other "Primary Civilisations " we can find no inquiry, but merely mention. Call them Higher Races, or Civilisations, or what you will, they either were always so, or they became so. He tells us they were not always so, and does not explain how they became so. We therefore repeat, he postulates certain Primary Civilisations (or Higher races), without inquiring into their origin.

The Reviewer.]

________

Fertilisation of Birds.

(Vol. viii. p. 375.)

Mr. P. H. Emerson writes that while in Anglesea he met with the curious belief, mentioned at the reference above, in regard to the pea-hen ; and in the village of Oulton Broad, Norfolk, where